FairPoint Service Problems May Lead To Hefty Fines

A year ago, FairPoint paid $2.3 billion for Verizon Communications Inc.'s wired telephone and high-speed Internet operations in northern New England over critics' objections that that the smaller telephone company was biting off more than it could chew.

Things were going relatively smoothly until early last month when FairPoint began transferring millions of pieces of data from Verizon's system.

Since then, customers have complained of e-mail problems, late bills and delays in getting orders filled. They've also complained of long waits for customer service or not being able to get through at all.

In each state, regulators look at a variety of customer-service standards such as how long it takes customer service representatives to answer calls, how long it takes to install new service and how long it takes to respond to reports of service problems.

To meet the Maine benchmark on customer service calls, for instance, FairPoint has to answer 69 percent of its calls within 20 seconds, said PUC spokesman Fred Bever.

On repair calls, it has to clear the problem within 24 hours 68 percent of the time for residential customers, and 91 percent of the time for businesses.